I started court proceedings for a lives with child arrangements order. My husband has been emotionally abusive and was actually arrested for coercive control late last year. No physical violence. But he had threatened to take the children from me and so I wanted it in black and white that they live with me. There is a non molestation order in place too, since he contested this I have had to spend so much of my savings on representation and I've basically run out of money ( I do not qualify for legal aid despite the abuse, due to my income).
So I was trying to settle out of court with him. He agreed to a lives with CAO in my favour and for contact to be built up from supervised, then unsupervised (provided no concerns raised from supervised sessions) and then overnight contact eow (provided he has suitable accommodation).
We were about to submit a consent order to confirm these details, and then Cafcass called to do the initial phone assessment. I informed them we were settling and she said she'd still need to do the assessment. Following on from that she told me they do not feel our agreements provide sufficient safeguarding for the children and I and that she will be recommending to the court that they do a section 7.
So does that mean it will be forced to go through the whole court process? I am ok with having Cafcass' input as it's been really difficult to decide what is best. BUT I won't be able to afford representation anymore and dread to think of it going through fact finding and all that on my own. Does anyone have experience of this? Is the judge likely to ask for the section 7 and will it then need to go through full court process? Thanks